The Nintendo Wii has gotten gamers moving about with its motion-sensitive controllers, but the next generation of game control device may require no movement at all. Video games that can read your mind will invade living rooms in 2008, thanks to electroencephalography (EEG) controllers that detect the electrical activity of the brain. Scientists have been working on the basic concept for several years, developing experimental brain implants that allow paralyzed patients to check their e-mail and move their wheelchair by thinking about it. But the new wave of EEG devices make the transition from medical device to consumer gadget, involving simple headsets that slip on with an array of electrodes to measure brain activity.

Already, Japanese researchers have demonstrated a prototype system that allows users to move their avatars around the virtual world of Second Life with only the power of their thoughts. The system is aimed at providing new opportunities to patients with severe paralysis. Some companies are using the consumer gaming market as a launchpad--hoping to make enough money to develop medical devices later, they say. Emotiv Systems promises its headset will detect facial expression, emotion (for instance, you might need to remain calm to stay undetected in a stealth game), as well as Jedi-style thoughts such as an intent to levitate things out of a swamp hands-free. Another company, NeuroSky, is creating its own biosensor technology for gaming. Whichever company wins, the force will be with us.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

2 of 10

Kagan McLeod

Self-Healing Materials

Drop your cellphone and it is likely to get scratched--unless it's made of a self-healing material. Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed the first practical self-healing plastic back in 2001: When the material was damaged, embedded microcapsules ruptured and a healing agent oozed out the fill the crack. The agent mixed with a catalyst also embedded in the material and hardened in place. The problem was that the catalyst was too expensive to be practical in real-world applications. But now the same research team has managed to modify the process so that the expensive catalyst is replaced by an inexpensive solvent. Tests of the new system show that fractures can recover as much as 82 percent of their original strength.

The applications for self-healing materials range from cosmetic uses like car paint that makes door dings disappear to structural uses like repairing airplane fuselages, where cracks can be catastrophic. The Illinois researchers are already working on tough paint for Navy ships, and the Army Corps of Engineers is testing a self-healing coating for large steel structures that have lead-based paint on them. Ultimately, the technology will allow bridges to repair tiny cracks before they turn into major structural problems.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

3 of 10

High-k Transistors

Every few years, we're warned that computer chips soon won't be able to get any smaller or faster. The problem: Tiny chip circuitry lets electric current leak out, causing overheating and wasting power. But Intel has once again managed to reduce chip size, with the smallest features on its new Penryn chips shrinking from 65 nanometers to 45 nanometers, thanks to a radical change in how it builds the insulating wall on its chips.

For the past four decades, semiconductor makers have used silicon dioxide as an insulating material. But the most recent generation of chips is so small that the insulating layer is as little as five atoms thick, making it impossible to shrink further without permitting too much current to leak away. The new chips replace silicon dioxide with a hafnium-based high-k insulator. "High-k" refers to the electric properties of the new material, which allows ten times less leakage current to escape compared to a similar thickness of silicon dioxide.

Intel rival AMD is following with its own 45-nanometer chips, also based on high-k technology. And the pace of development seems unlikely to slow down quite yet: Intel as well as an alliance of chip makers led by IBM have already demonstrated working prototypes of the next generation of high-k chips, 32-nanometer models that should hit in 2009.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

4 of 10

Real-World Web

The machines know where you are--and that may be a good thing. As more portable devices merge GPS information with network connectivity through cellular, Wi-Fi or ad hoc links, Internet use will change. Do a Yellow Pages search on "pizza" when you're in a new town and your smartphone will tell you the closest spot to get a slice. New pop-up ads may not be far behind--imagine receiving an alert that a Starbucks is just a block away, along with an electronic coupon for a new coffee flavor.

Already, many GPS devices are integrating real-time contextual location information into guidance. Many of the latest systems incorporate real-time traffic and construction information over terrestrial or satellite radio frequencies.

But the biggest development of 2008 may be the advent of Android, a new open-source mobile operating system platform backed by Google and several major cellphone carriers through the Open Handset Alliance. The organization's aim is to encourage the development of creative applications that will transform the mobile handset into more of a portable mini computer whose phone function is secondary. Google cites possible mash-ups like combining a mobile version of Google Maps with a service showing where your friends are, suggesting that the company's mastery of contextual information could help kick-start a new, location-based information age.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

5 of 10

Kagan McLeod

Clear-Pixel Cameras

Since they can't afford to waste battery life on high-power flashes, cameraphones have a tough time handling low light. A new imaging sensor design from Kodak addresses the problem using a different kind of pixel. Today's cameras detect light with an array of red, green and blue pixels--which each see just one color. That means each pixel is ignoring two-thirds of the incoming light. The new sensor adds a panchromatic or "clear" pixel that detects all wavelengths of visible light, making it much more sensitive to the overall light level.

By using a mix of clear and color pixels, the new sensor becomes two to four times as sensitive to low-light conditions. The specific pattern of how the four kinds of pixels are distributed can be varied depending on circumstances--a cameraphone, for instance, might use a pixel pattern that doesn't require much computing power to reconstruct the image from the incoming light data. Another benefit is that greater light sensitivity allows faster shutter speeds, reducing the blur in action shots. The first prototypes are expected early in 2008.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

6 of 10

Pay-Per-Glance Ads

Internet advertisers have pioneered the "pay-per-click" advertising model, but now a similar concept is ready to make the jump into the real world, with billboards that watch you watch them. In 2007, Canadian startup Xuuk introduced eye-tracking technology that uses infrared sensors to look for the red-eye phenomenon familiar from family snapshots. The device looks like a small webcam and can detect a passing glance from over 30 feet away. This year, the company will roll out its Eyeanalytics software, letting advertisers monitor how many people are looking at each of their ads, and for how long.

The implications for the ad world are clear: "You could sell ads by the eyeball," says Xuuk's CEO, Roel Vertegaal. That model has paid off for companies like Google in the online world--and they're watching Xuuk closely. Vertegaal has already traveled to Mountain View, Calif., to present his technology at Google headquarters, though he's tight-lipped about any future plans with the Internet search giant.

The immediate application, though, is to help advertisers target their ads more effectively. Currently, it's only possible to judge the effectiveness of billboards through expensive focus groups and surveys. With a few well-placed eye-trackers, ad firms and their clients will be able to figure out which ads catch your eye--literally--and hold your attention. Firms such as Toronto-based Novramedia, which operates about 10,000 digital signs around the world, are already experimenting with the technology.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

7 of 10

Flexible Displays

Miniaturization is great, but not everyone wants to read the news on a 1.5-in. cellphone screen. Polymer Vision's Readius, due to be released in 2008, will be the first mobile device with a screen bigger than the device itself. The trick is a paper-thin rollable display, just 25 microns thick, that combines a plastic substrate with organic thin-film transistors. The display incorporates "electronic ink" made by E-Ink (also found in the Sony Reader and Amazon Kindle), which uses an electric field to move around negatively charged black particles and positively charged white particles. The result is a 5-in. screen offering paperlike readability even in bright sun and generating 16 shades of gray. Future models are expected to incorporate color, and the size of the screen is also expected to increase.

The cellphone-loving Italians will be the first to try the Readius this year, with Telecom Italia slated to release its Librofonino. And Polymer Vision is not alone in the market: British company Plastic Logic has been building a dedicated production facility in Germany to manufacture flexible displays, which it plans to begin selling in 2008.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

8 of 10

Embedded Voice Recognition

Voice recognition, for decades a clunky technology that's provided as much disappointment as promise, has been undergoing a revolution of late. Ford's new Sync in-car communication system, for example, pushes voice-control technology to a new level of sophistication--ask your car for a song, and it plays it. It also allows you to make voice-controlled hands-free calls from your cellphone.

Better voice recognition takes a lot of computing power, which is why the most common application right now is in huge server-based telephone switchboard systems. But Moore's Law is coming to the rescue: The big step this year will be the migration of voice-recognition technology into miniature packages, a route being pursued by several companies. New Bluetooth headsets with embedded voice recognition are expected to hit shelves in mid-2008, powered by Sensory Inc.'s FluentSoft chip.

It's an application that makes a lot of sense, since cellphone headsets suffer from tiny, hard-to-manipulate controls that are out of the user's line of sight. It also eliminates the need for tiny displays, with commands such as "Check battery power" and "Am I connected?" Put it all together with new services such as Google's GOOG-411 voice-activated free local directory service, and you can make a call to a business whose number you don't even know--all without taking your hands off the steering wheel.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

9 of 10

Self-Defending Bots

In November, the FBI announced the results of the second phase of its Bot Roast operation, part of a crackdown on the criminal hackers who have been zombifying PCs for the past few years, using computer viruses and worms to build giant "botnets" that do their bidding. The operation identified more than $20 million in economic damage, and announced three new indictments, three sentencings and two other guilty pleas--including a California man that the Bureau described as "a well-known member of the botnet underground."

So far, so good--but that certainly doesn't mean that we're winning the war. Software companies such as Microsoft, Symantec and McAfee routinely update their products to find and eradicate these threats. But recently, the bots have started biting back, attacking computer security professionals who try to research them. When probed, threatened bots automatically summon other zombie computers to team up and flood the researchers' machines with data. This presents the prospect of bots as intelligent, infinitely evolving agents that can take drastic action for self-preservation--and that's got security pros pretty worried.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

10 of 10

C.J. Burton

Nano Cancer Therapy

Back in 2004, the National Cancer Institute launched its Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer, which coordinates the research of labs across the country that are developing techniques to use tiny nanoparticles to fight cancer. Now, some companies are preparing to launch clinical trials of their research--Liquidia Technologies, a spin-off from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is testing a nanodrug delivery system.

There are three key areas where researchers expect nano to fight cancer. First, diagnosis can be improved with delicate sensors. Vibrating nanocantilevers that change frequency when they bind to tumor cells may yield ultra-early lab tests for the disease. Second, drug delivery systems like Liquidia's use tiny particles to carry drugs through the bloodstream to tumors. Specially engineered "stealth" particles can sneak past the immune system, allowing more of the drug to accumulate in the tumor. Finally, medical imaging can also be improved: For instance, iron-bearing nanoparticles that preferentially accumulate in tumors could make them show up earlier in MRIs.

A Part of Hearst Digital Media
Popular Mechanics participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means Popular Mechanics gets paid commissions on purchases made through our links to retailer sites.